Smith believes he’s too big, too skilled for Canelo at 168
Smith defends his world title this Saturday against the Mexican star.
It’s not only a few days away before Callum Smith defends his WBA super middleweight title against Canelo Alvarez, and Smith is taking confidence from the fact that he believes Canelo will be operating outside of his ideal weight class, which only benefits him in this matchup.
Smith makes it clear to ESPN that he doesn’t truly consider Canelo a super middleweight, and despite Canelo stopping Sergey Kovalev at an even higher weight, Smith thinks Canelo is tilting the odds against himself by going up against fighters of his size.
“In my opinion, no, he’s not a super middleweight. Yes, he’s been there before, fought Kovalev, but if you look at the champions at super middleweight, they are all big lads. There’s only so much size your ability can make up for. We saw it with Lomachenko. I believe that will be the case for Canelo against me, I will be too big for him. But I’m not just a big lump, I’ve got skills and ability, too; I’ve shown I belong at a world level. If I can use the size and ability, I’ve got the beating of Canelo at 168 pounds.”
In fact, going on to discount the win over Kovalev, Smith says Kovalev was a bit lazy and that Canelo still wasn’t able to dominate the rounds before ultimately stopping Kovalev. Comparing that to himself, Smith says he’s very different stylistically from Kovalev and plans to make that apparent once the opening bell rings.
How to Watch Canelo vs Smith
Date: Saturday, Dec. 19 | Start Time: 8:00 pm ET
Location: Alamodome - San Antonio, TX
Stream: DAZN
Online Coverage: BadLeftHook.com
And with that all in mind Smith says he plans to operate at his highest ability come fight night and plans to utilize all of his advantages in this fight to make sure he comes out victorious. Smith is confident he has the skill set to beat Canelo, so now he just has demonstrate that on Saturday night when he’ll get his chance.